diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 0adec48..8da9d03 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # JWT Secret for authentication
-JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key-here
+# IMPORTANT: Generate a secure random secret with: openssl rand -hex 32
+# NEVER use the default value or commit the actual secret to version control
+JWT_SECRET=CHANGE_ME_TO_A_64_CHARACTER_SECURE_RANDOM_STRING_GENERATED_BY_OPENSSL
 
 # URLs
 ADMIN_URL=https://admin.photos.yourdomain.com
diff --git a/docker-compose.local.yml b/docker-compose.local.yml
index 909e67c..19c57aa 100644
--- a/docker-compose.local.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.local.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ services:
     environment:
       - NODE_ENV=development
       - PORT=3000
-      - JWT_SECRET=local-dev-secret-key-123
+      - JWT_SECRET=b375996f704bb1541ad9297e7710a215fce0b59ecf1c43236aeea32ec01e7b27
       - ADMIN_URL=http://localhost:3005
       - FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3005
       # Email - uses Mailhog
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index edce7a0..3e5fb58 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ services:
     environment:
       - NODE_ENV=development
       - PORT=3000
-      - JWT_SECRET=dev-secret-key
+      - JWT_SECRET=b55e4b3e9f212e1d1836c2ee2ec5ac47672350acdf1391c894d3433646579ad0
       - ADMIN_URL=http://localhost:3001
       - FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3005
       - SMTP_HOST=mailhog
diff --git a/docs/SECURITY_BEST_PRACTICES.md b/docs/SECURITY_BEST_PRACTICES.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f67d5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/SECURITY_BEST_PRACTICES.md
@@ -0,0 +1,179 @@
+# Security Best Practices for PicPeak
+
+## JWT Secret Management
+
+### Generating Secure Secrets
+
+Always generate cryptographically secure random secrets for JWT signing:
+
+```bash
+# Generate a 64-character hex string (256 bits)
+openssl rand -hex 32
+
+# Alternative: Generate a base64 string
+openssl rand -base64 32
+
+# Alternative: Using Node.js
+node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"
+```
+
+### Environment-Specific Secrets
+
+**NEVER use the same JWT secret across different environments!**
+
+- **Development**: Use the secure secret in `docker-compose.yml`
+- **Staging**: Generate a unique secret for staging
+- **Production**: Generate a unique secret for production
+
+### Secret Requirements
+
+1. **Minimum Length**: 32 characters (enforced by application)
+2. **Recommended Length**: 64 characters (256 bits)
+3. **Character Set**: Use hex or base64 encoding
+4. **Uniqueness**: Each environment must have a unique secret
+
+### What NOT to Do
+
+❌ **Never commit real secrets to version control**
+```bash
+# Bad - real secret in code
+JWT_SECRET=my-actual-production-secret
+```
+
+❌ **Never use predictable or weak secrets**
+```bash
+# Bad examples
+JWT_SECRET=secret123
+JWT_SECRET=mycompanyname
+JWT_SECRET=password
+JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key
+```
+
+❌ **Never share secrets between environments**
+```bash
+# Bad - same secret everywhere
+DEV_JWT_SECRET=same-secret
+PROD_JWT_SECRET=same-secret
+```
+
+### Secure Secret Storage
+
+#### For Local Development
+- Docker Compose files can contain development secrets
+- These should still be secure random values
+
+#### For Production
+1. **Environment Variables**
+   ```bash
+   # Set via secure environment
+   export JWT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
+   ```
+
+2. **Secret Management Services**
+   - AWS Secrets Manager
+   - HashiCorp Vault
+   - Azure Key Vault
+   - Kubernetes Secrets
+
+3. **CI/CD Integration**
+   - Store secrets in CI/CD platform's secret storage
+   - Never log or echo secrets in build scripts
+
+### Secret Rotation
+
+Implement a secret rotation strategy:
+
+1. **Regular Rotation**: Rotate secrets every 90 days
+2. **Incident Response**: Rotate immediately if compromised
+3. **Graceful Rotation**: Support multiple valid secrets during transition
+
+### Monitoring and Alerts
+
+1. **Startup Validation**: Application refuses to start without proper JWT_SECRET
+2. **Length Warnings**: Warnings for secrets shorter than 32 characters
+3. **Default Detection**: Critical error if default secret is detected
+
+## Additional Security Measures
+
+### Password Requirements
+- Minimum 12 characters
+- Mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters
+- Check against common password lists
+- Implement password strength meter
+
+### Session Security
+- Implement token expiration (24 hours for admin, configurable for galleries)
+- Add refresh token mechanism
+- Implement token revocation
+- Use secure session storage (Redis in production)
+
+### API Security
+- Rate limiting on all endpoints
+- Extra strict limits on authentication endpoints
+- CSRF protection for state-changing operations
+- Input validation on all user inputs
+
+### File Upload Security
+- Validate file types by content, not just extension
+- Implement virus scanning
+- Limit file sizes
+- Sanitize filenames
+- Store files outside web root
+
+### Database Security
+- Use parameterized queries (Knex.js handles this)
+- Validate and sanitize all inputs
+- Implement query timeouts
+- Use least-privilege database users
+
+### HTTPS and Headers
+- Always use HTTPS in production
+- Implement security headers:
+  - Strict-Transport-Security
+  - X-Frame-Options
+  - X-Content-Type-Options
+  - Content-Security-Policy
+  - X-XSS-Protection
+
+### Logging and Monitoring
+- Log authentication attempts
+- Monitor for suspicious patterns
+- Never log sensitive data (passwords, tokens)
+- Implement audit trails for admin actions
+
+## Security Checklist for Deployment
+
+- [ ] Generate unique JWT_SECRET for environment
+- [ ] Verify JWT_SECRET meets minimum requirements
+- [ ] Store secrets securely (not in code)
+- [ ] Enable HTTPS
+- [ ] Configure security headers
+- [ ] Set up rate limiting
+- [ ] Enable audit logging
+- [ ] Test authentication flows
+- [ ] Verify file upload restrictions
+- [ ] Check database query security
+
+## Incident Response
+
+If a security incident occurs:
+
+1. **Immediate Actions**
+   - Rotate all secrets
+   - Review access logs
+   - Disable compromised accounts
+
+2. **Investigation**
+   - Analyze logs for unauthorized access
+   - Check for data exfiltration
+   - Review code changes
+
+3. **Recovery**
+   - Deploy security patches
+   - Force password resets if needed
+   - Notify affected users
+
+4. **Prevention**
+   - Update security practices
+   - Implement additional monitoring
+   - Conduct security audit
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/scripts/generate-jwt-secret.sh b/scripts/generate-jwt-secret.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..73ba075
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/generate-jwt-secret.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Generate a secure JWT secret for PicPeak
+
+echo "==================================="
+echo "JWT Secret Generator for PicPeak"
+echo "==================================="
+echo ""
+
+# Generate the secret
+SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
+
+echo "Your new JWT secret (64 characters):"
+echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
+echo "$SECRET"
+echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
+echo ""
+echo "To use this secret:"
+echo ""
+echo "1. For Docker Compose (.env file):"
+echo "   JWT_SECRET=$SECRET"
+echo ""
+echo "2. For environment variable:"
+echo "   export JWT_SECRET=$SECRET"
+echo ""
+echo "3. For systemd service:"
+echo "   Environment=\"JWT_SECRET=$SECRET\""
+echo ""
+echo "⚠️  IMPORTANT:"
+echo "   - Keep this secret secure and never commit it to version control"
+echo "   - Use different secrets for different environments"
+echo "   - Store production secrets in a secure secret management system"
+echo "   - Rotate secrets regularly (every 90 days recommended)"
+echo ""
\ No newline at end of file